Category Archives: Somalia

We are here to support Somalia at a moment which is both tragic and hopeful. And I do believe that Somalia can be in the near future the kind of good news that we badly need in the international community and in our troubled world.

I thank the United Kingdom, as well as President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmajo of Somalia, for co-hosting.

I deeply appreciate the leadership of the African Union and the vital work of AMISOM. I thank Chairperson Faki for joining us today.

I commend the President, along with Prime Minister Khayre, the new cabinet and leaders of the Federal Member States, for their political will to work together in Somalia.

Like all of us, I was deeply saddened by the tragic death last week of the Minister of Public Works, Abbas [Abdullahi Sheikh] Siraji. He grew up in a refugee camp and went on to become a powerful symbol of Somalis’ hopes for the future. His unfortunate death must not diminish our resolve to see these hopes realized.

On the contrary, his sacrifice must encourage all Somalis to maintain the spirit of inclusiveness, embracing women, youth, minorities, business leaders and all members of society, and must encourage us all to support that effort.

The significantly enhanced representation of women and youth in the new Federal Parliament shows Somalia’s positive trajectory.

We are here to listen to Somalia’s leadership – and to agree on a framework for cooperation. Continue reading →

Somali piracy off the Horn of Africa was once estimated by the World Bank to cost global trade billions of dollars, and to harm the fragile economies of countries in the region.

These disastrous financial costs, at a time of painful global downturn, came alongside a raft of pain and suffering for those taken hostage, some of whom died due to desperate living conditions and a lack of medical treatment. Now, in the last few weeks, Somali piracy is back: making headlines, boarding ships, and taking hostages. Since early March, based on news reports, there have been a series of successful attacks, including on 1 April, when the cargo ship Al Kaushar was boarded. Eleven Indian nationals are in pirate hands. Continue reading →

Students at the Hamar Jajab School in Mogadishu, Somalia on 20 January 2015. UN Photo/Ilyas Ahmed

2 October 2015 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon led a chorus of United Nations officials in hailing Somalia’s ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and in renewing the call for the last remaining country that has yet to join the treaty to do so.

Somalia deposited its instrument of ratification at UN Headquarters in New York yesterday during the annual treaty event held in conjunction with the General Assembly’s high-level debate, formalizing the process of ratification started earlier this year.

In doing so, the Horn of Africa nation became the 196th State party to the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history. The United States is now the only country that has not ratified it.

Applauding the international community’s role in helping Somalia emerge from a difficult past, Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke told the United Nations General Assembly today that a new Somalia is taking shape and proposed the “grand development plan” that would help Somali’s keep building a better future. “I want to tell you about Somalia,” he said. “But a different Somalia from the one you might have heard of. I am not here to challenge you on our notoriety as a result of a conflict that has spanned two and half decades. However, please allow me to introduce another reality.”

The members of the Security Council strongly condemn the attack on 26 June against the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) base camp in Leego, perpetrated by Al-Shabaab, which has caused the death and injury of many Burundian troops. The members of the Security Council expressed their deep sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims, to the people and Government of Burundi, to AMISOM, as well as to the people and Government of the Federal Republic of Somalia. They deplored Al Shabaab’s actions against a base of AMISOM, which is working alongside the Federal Government of Somalia, and the Somali National Army, to protect the Somali people and to assist in the reconstruction and stabilization of Somalia.

20 April 2015 – The United Nations has strongly condemned this morning’s attack on a UN vehicle in north-eastern Somalia, which killed four UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) workers and seriously injured four others when a roadside bomb exploded alongside the minibus in which they were riding.

“All of us at UNICEF are deeply saddened, and deeply angered,” Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive-Director, said in a statement to the press. Continue reading →

The members of the Security Council welcomed the approval of the Cabinet list by the Federal Parliament of Somalia on 9 February. They stressed the need for the Federal Government to accelerate delivery of the milestones of the Federal Government’s ‘Vision 2016’. In this context, they underlined the importance of the new political leadership in Somalia quickly delivering in priority areas, including the passage of key legislation to establish the National Independent Electoral Commission, progress towards the establishment and strengthening of interim regional administrations, the stabilisation of areas recovered from Al Shabaab, and resuming the implementation and review of the Provisional Constitution, without further delay. Continue reading →

Carrying whatever possessions they can, women arrive at a camp for Internally Displaced People (IDPs) established next to a base of the African Union Mission for Somalia (AMISOM) near Jowhar. UN Photo/Tobin Jones

16 September 2014 –Alarming circumstances such as forced evictions, drought, conflict and lack of livelihood have forced over 130,000 people from their homes in Somalia so far this year, with the majority being internally displaced, warned the United Nations refugee agency today.

“Insecurity was the main cause of internal displacement, with some 38,000 people fleeing their homes because of military conflict,” Babar Baloch, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told journalists in Geneva. Continue reading →

8 August 2014 – A United Nations human rights expert today urged the international community to “act now” to avert a humanitarian disaster in Somalia, where a widening hunger crisis has sparked fears of a repeat of the 2011 famine that devastated the war-ravaged country.